


A Human Word Of Power

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [22]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Annoying Siblings, Backstory, Dragons, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Fantasy, Flash Fic, Gen, Love, Medieval, Microfic, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22372744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: "Love?" asked the golden dragon."Or hate. Two words of human power."***After an attempt at garnering a meal, a dragon learns where to find love.
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 7





	A Human Word Of Power

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in January 2020. It has been given fairly moderate edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️ 
> 
> **RECOMMENDED RE-READING:** This is a direct follow-up to ["The Dragon Learns Of Love."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22372441) I introduced Amaderu in ["Dragon, Dragonfly."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22056346)f
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

After the dragon Amaderu learned of love, he grew hungry. Not for love, mind you, although he craved that as well; rather, he had not eaten since his siblings had imprisoned him within the mountain, and he felt ravenous.

Drifting over the countryside, the dragon tried to recall what he had dined upon when he had his freedom. Other creatures. Special ones. But what had made those creatures special? He did remember his siblings declaring their food "unthinking," but all beings had the gift of thought, did they not? Even if those thoughts were simple.

He spied a dead thing in a field of purple flowers and circled it. It was a small morsel, no longer than one of his claws. A—what? A bird? No, it lacked wings. A rodent of some kind? No, too big. Just barely too big. Was it, perhaps, something more powerful? An angel? A fairy? Ah—wait. No wings. He had established that already.

It had been too long since Amaderu had seen much beyond darkness and the glint of gold. 

He carried the dead thing off between his teeth and lay it on a ledge. Then he licked it. Turned it this way and that. It did not seem very appetizing, especially as it had not really died at all.

"Don't call me that," it mumbled, but did not open its eyes.

The language dredged up a deep, deep recognition in Amaderu. It had grown slurred and accented with the years, but...

"Don't," mumbled the not-dead thing again. "Don't call me Kiraan—I can't bear it—I cannot—"

"Are you a thinking creature?" Amaderu asked. 

"My flowers," it said, in the smallest voice the dragon had ever heard. "I want, I want—"

The not-dead thing curled in on itself, but its torso rose and fell still. Well, then. Amaderu still hungered, and he supposed he could make it quick for this, ah, whatever it was. As he bent down to devour the morsel, Amaderu sensed the heat of another presence on the ledge.

"Are you utterly deranged, brother?"

Immediately Amaderu looked up to find another dragon, much larger than he and silver-scaled, sharing his space.

"I feel as though I cannot go an eon without someone lobbing insults at my character," Amaderu said with a sigh. His siblings were easy enough to recognize, even after a few millennia.

Said the silver-scaled dragon, "Put the human back." 

"Which one are you, again?"

"You will bring war upon us all, Amaderu. Put her back. If your tastes have grown so bloody, we will have to convene a council to—"

"Ah. Belderu. As irritating as ever."

"Do not cross humans, Amaderu!" 

A headache brewed within his skull, but so did mischief. As he picked up the human again, he decided to replace her not where he'd found her, but by some roadside a few hundred miles away.

"It is done," Amaderu told his sibling upon his return. "You owe me dinner." 

"You ought to hope her kinfolk didn't notice," said the silvery Belderu. "You ought to hope she bears no scars of your making."

"Why, may I ask, are we bending to the will of such little animals?"

"Because they are made of iron."

"It—she seemed rather soft to me." 

"You dense, dense—"

"Ah! The insults again. Re-imprison me, please, if this is the conversation I am to expect from you all."

"They are as links in chainmail, the human race. They bond together, and there is no separating them."

"What force could be so strong that—" 

"They call it love, or hate. And with it they summon winds—ravage mountains—bloody earth—"

Amaderu blinked and, as Belderu continued to ramble, turned his attention toward the countryside. Along the horizon, he spied cities. Hamlets. Smoking towns on riverbanks. 

"Love?" asked the golden dragon.

"Or hate. Two words of human power."

"And that settlement yonder? Human?"

"Yes. Althussant. Avoid it at all costs, unless you are disguised—and even then...I will take my leave. The others must know you have decided to rejoin us."

The silver dragon left him staring out at Althussant, that faraway kingdom.

First, Amaderu would eat. And then...rejoin his siblings? No, no. He had other plans.

Ah, Althussant—

The very word suffused him with delight.

**Author's Note:**

> (Incidentally, the royal botanist Valériane de la Rue had many long but painless marks on her torso she could not place. They had appeared after she awoke in Althussant as a child. 
> 
> History also tells us that Amaderu d'Ampère, consort to the queen, avoided the botanist for a long time after his marriage.
> 
> The queen would say, "What, do you want her? I have no issues, but she might: she only loves women."
> 
> And he would say, "How does a human apologize?")
> 
> Leave a comment or a kudos or whatever the heck if this tickled your fancy. There shall be more! ❤️ Also, please let me know what other characters, relationships, or places you'd like to hear about. I have lots of ideas, but I'd enjoy writing a few stories for y'all as well.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** I want to write more about Belderu, who is the annoying librarian sibling you never wanted. I already have an entire thing set up in my head. It's just a matter of getting to it.
> 
> Also, yes, Val and Amaderu "met" briefly. I don't know how one says sorry for almost eating your wife's best friend either, dude. Even if it was, like, a decade ago.


End file.
